Iran's Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Dr. Mojtaba Shariati Niasar, visited The Cyprus Institute on Tuesday, March 1st 2016.

The Deputy Minister’s delegation included Prof. Dr. Mohammadreza Pourmohammadi, Chancellor of the University of Tabriz, Iran, Ambassador Dr. Reza Zabib, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mahdavi Mazdeh, General Director of Alumni Affairs, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Prof. Dr. Hossein Sabouri, Director of International Relations Office of University of Tabriz and Dr. Despina Martidou-Forcier, Director of the Department of Higher and Tertiary Education.

Dr. Niasar was briefed about the vision, accomplishments and ongoing research activity at CyI by the President of the Institute Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas. The Minister expressed his admiration for the impressive work being done at CyI and proposed that concrete steps are taken to establish collaborations and joint activities between CyI and Iranian institutions. As a first step it was agreed that in the near future PhD student exchanges will be arranged in areas of common interest between CyI and prominent Iranian Universities and research centers. The possibility for organizing joint conferences was also agreed as a first step for collaboration. Dr. Niasar visited a number of research infrastructures of CyI including the Visualization Laboratory, the Unmanned Aircraft Research Laboratory and the High-Performance computing (HPC) facility, where he met with students and researchers of CyI.